It has been a well known hobby for many years for railroad enthusiasts around the world to build and operate model railroads. To accommodate this hobby, railroad equipment--including railroad cars, railroad track, buildings, and other properties--have been reduced to a scale version of the original. This allows the modeler to create his/her own setting for the particular train. The goal of each modeler is typically to create as lifelike a setting as possible. To this extent, it is desirable to have a coupler for coupling model railroad cars whereby the coupler is scaled to the same proportions as the cars, and whereby the coupler is close in physical appearance to a full scale coupler.
Due to the size and operation of a model train coupler, it is well known that achieving an accurate visual representation of a coupler is difficult. Specifically, it is difficult to construct a working scale model coupler that is also realistic in appearance.
Other model railroad couplers have been produced to couple model railroad cars. Typical of the art are those devices disclosed in the following U.S. Patents:
U.S. Pat. No. Inventor(s) Issue Date 5,785,192 M. N. Dunham et al. July 28, 1998 5,931,322 D. Storzek Aug. 3, 1999
The '192 device disclosed by Dunham et al., is typical of the prior art. The '192 device includes a knuckle pivotally carried by a coupler head, and a spring actuated locking mechanism. The knuckle is configured to engage the knuckle of another such device placed in an opposite orientation such that when they are so engaged and when each is locked, the respective cars to which they are mounted remain coupled one to the other. The locking mechanism includes a simulated air hose, which is essentially a magnetic arm which, when passed over a magnetic field, releases the knuckle, thereby allowing for the decoupling of the two model cars. However, at least for visual impact, it is not desirable to include the magnetic arm. Further, Dunham et al., note that known couplers are generally larger scale than the cars which they are designed to couple. As an example, they indicated that "HO scale is 1/85 scale", while "a typical HO coupler is approximately 1/70 scale." They concluded that "efforts have been made to make couplers smaller," but the presence of "extraneous structure has made this task difficult." Likewise, the extraneous structure taught by Dunham et al., impedes the task of achieving an accurately scaled coupler.
The '322 device disclosed by Storzek is formed from a pair of shanks disposed one on the other. Both shanks are rotatably mounted on a single pivot axis. One shank defines a knuckle at its distal end, and the other defines a lip. The shanks are each biased such that the knuckle and lip are biased toward each other. The knuckle and shank are configured such that another such device placed in an opposite orientation may be engaged with the device by pushing the two in a axial direction. In order to disengage the two devices, a specialized tool is wedged between the two knuckles and rotated clockwise. However, this type of mechanism fails to assimilate the functions of a full scale coupler. Specifically, the '322 device does not teach a knuckle pivotally mounted to a coupler head.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a scaled railroad car coupler for coupling equally scaled model train cars.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a coupler whereby the coupler includes a knuckle pivotally carried by a coupler head.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a coupler including an internal locking mechanism for locking the orientation of the knuckle when closed.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide such a coupler whereby the locking mechanism is magnetically actuated.